Good Omens The next Chapter.
Epilogue: The rest of their Lives.
Book by: Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett; This chapter by: Emily Hughes
"Now what are we supposed to do?"
Crowley was in the back of Aziraphale's bookshop in Soho. The angel looked over at his counterpart, and friend.
"What do you mean?"
"Well...we kind of stopped the Apocalypse. You know, so…the end of the world didn't happen…so what's next?"
Crowley finishes his glass of 1856 Merlot wine and glared at it; it immediately refilled, he took a sip.
"Well, I guess we just…continue," said Aziraphale, turning a page in his first edition copy of the "Bugger Alle This" Bible.
"Have you heard from hea-Above about this?" Crowley asked after a couple of minutes.
Aziraphale stopped his reading at Ezekiel 48:5, "No."
Crowley nodded.
"What about you, have you heard from Hell?"
Crowley slumped into his armchair. "No. And I don't want to either! Even if it is worrying…"
"In my opinion, I think there acting like it never happened, that it was just postponed." Aziraphale said; Crowley was silent.
Aziraphale continued to read when they heard a knock at the shop door.
Crowley muttered and stood up, "I'll get it angel."
Aziraphale nodded and returned to reading. He looked up a few minutes later when he heard Crowley come back.
"What is it?"
"A package...from some one who was at the Not-Quite-Apocalypse."
"What's in the package." Aziraphale said patiently.
Crowley looked up, "How should I know?"
"Then give it to me dear." Aziraphale said patiently. Crowley handed it over to the angel.
"Did you order any new books?" The demon asked.
"No, why?"
"...The guy said, 'It's heavy reading, this book. Have fun.' he wasn't wearing a International Express outfit. He looked sort of familiar too. Oh well…"
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Newt drove 'Dick Turpin', (his defunct Japanese car) back home to the cottage where Anathema lived. He had done what the note had told him to do. "I'm back!" He called as he walked in the door. Anathema looked up from where she was doing the Daily crossword puzzle. "So, did you do as it said?"
"Yes, I delivered it to that address. But you know what was weird, the guy who answered the door looked oddly familiar."
Anathema looked up.
"Familiar? How so?"
Newt took off his jacket as he described Crowley to her.
"Well he had dark hair, high cheekbones, and snakeskin shoes. His eye's were bizarre however, they were yellow with a slit pupil. I saw that much before he slipped on a pair of sunglasses."
Anathema chewed thoughtfully on the end of her pen.
"Oh...Wait...That sounds like one of the guy's from the Apocalypse...He was there with the flaming car. I think he is a demon. Why would Agnes make us give her book to a demon?"
Newt shrugged as he put some water on for tea.
"Well there was another guy there, in the back room. I saw him when the guy came from back there. He was reading something so I assume he is the real owner of that bookstore."
Anathema stopped chewing on the pen.
"Did he have blondish hair and was wearing tartan?"
"Yeah..."
"Oh! It's the other guy from the Apocalypse! The angel!"
"That's not how the note referred to them..."Newt got two teacups down.
"I know it called them 'Thee Gatekeepere and Thee Serpante' I wonder what that means?"
"Don't let it bother you dear." Newt put down a cup of Earl Grey in front of Anathema. "Drink up."
Anathema smiled, "Thank you."
—————————————————————————————————
Summer in Lower Tadfield was ending in the way summer's do, hot. The Them were spending as much time as humanly, or inhumanly in Adam's case, possible lazing about. They were currently by a pond which they had discovered earlier this summer which they nicknamed, The Hole, and which the adults referred to as, That Old Stagnant Pond Down by the Old Mill. It was not as stagnant as it had been thanks to the effort's of Adam's will and a couple of odd 'oops' and 'sorry's' in the mix. But in the end they had a nice clean pond with a small stream running through.
Now if anyone had
given this some though they would have realized that there was
nothing a small stream could run from, not that anyone gave any
thought, but if they had. Anyways, that's where they were. Adam
was currently lounging on a convenient rock, he should know he put it
there, in the middle of the pond. Now that they really start to think
about it it's more a lake-pond than a pond, but that's not
important. Adam was lounging, Pepper was sun bathing, Brian and
Wendsdale were arguing about Inter-Dimensional space travel, again.
"Look I told you, There is no way that would work. It doesn't
make any sense what you need is-"
That was Wendsdale's voice.
Dog's ear's twitched a little and he dreamt of chasing condemned
souls.
" Look It would
work because-"
That was Brian interrupting Wendsdale
again.
"Will you stop interrupti-"
"Only if you sto-"
"I
only do it bec-"
"And I onl-"
"Will y-"
"No
I-"
"STO-"
"N-"
"WILL YOU BOTH BE QUIET?!"
And
suddenly they were. Adam hid his head under his hat as Pepper sat up
and glared at the two arguing boys. "If I hafta' hear one more
word about how you could travel between worlds through space ships or
giant bubbles in the fabric of the world I will hurt you both.
SEVERELY." With that she laid back down grumbling to
herself.
Silence reigned for a few minutes until, in a quiet voice
Adam said, "And besides, you should know by know that the only way
to hop Inter-dimensionally is to ride a spaceship INTO the giant
bubble's in the fabric of space."
Cricket's chirped, Pepper
sat up, and all hell broke loose, or at least a Pepper kind of hell.
—————————————————————————————————
A new day begun at the little country bungalow of Shangri-la. The north country mind you, Shadwell would have nothing to do with those southern pansies down in the south country. Shadwell was slouched on the porch swing watching the sun rise. Or supposedly any way's, in fact he wasn't watching the sunrise at all. He was, in fact, asleep. Madame Tracy walked outside with a blanket and wrapped it around Shadwell. She gave a small smile and watching the sun rise from the kitchen, she made ready for the day ahead. After all it was a new day.
—————————————————————————————————
Crowley shrugged and sat down again.
Aziraphale opened
the box. He looked down at it's contents and blinked, once, twice,
a shocked expression flashing onto his face and the book slipped from
his hands. Crowley looked at him then looked down at the book. "Oh
Hell, er, Heaven, err, whatever!!" The cover read, Further Nife
and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter Concerning the Worlde that Is
To Com; Ye saga Continuef!
Aziraphale looked shell-shocked.
"Bloody 'ell! That means that she KNEW that the world wasn't
going to end!" Crowley exclaimed.
Aziraphale nodded mutely.
"I
though it was Hea-eh…Your guy's job to stop these kinds of
Prophet's?"
Aziraphale nodded
again with the look of a pole-axed cat.
"I don't think we
should read this…" Stammered Crowley emphatically.
"I
agree…I think I'll go put this on a shelf somewhere. Where it can
collect dust…and mildew." Aziraphale said getting up from his
favorite armchair.
Crowley smirked. "Why angel I'm shocked, I
never though you'd be one to NOT read a book."
Aziraphale gave
a small smile as he put the book up into a crawl space above one of
the book selves. "Yes, but I don't want to know when the next
Apocalypse in scheduled."
Crowley shook his head, "Me either.
Now how about we got to lunch, your treat?"
"Sure, the
Ritz?"
"Always the best."
—————————————————————————————————
Somewhere, above all this He smiled, shook his head and watched as his Ineffable plan continued in the World. Sitting next to him, in black robes and a pointy hat, was a old woman who was busy writing in a leather notebook. The only words visible in the light of the World were; Agnes Nutter, Witch.
THE END (for now)